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Deeply Talks: Fire & Drought – the Extremes Become Routine

The West has entered an era of permanent water scarcity and is facing more frequent, larger wildfires. Listen to two experts explain how these challenges – and our approaches to managing them – are intertwined.

Wildfire affects the watersheds that in turn supply municipal drinking water, fulfill agricultural needs and support critical species across the West. That’s why the management of both forest and water resources is so closely intertwined – and why this issue has become more pressing. The West, Kolden explained, is seeing more fires across larger areas, and even changes to how these fires burn.

“Most of the water utilities in California now have extensive programs that address fire prevention and suppression and also forest management to alter the behavior of fires in their watersheds,” Kolden said. Outside of California, however, the level of preparedness varies, depending on how often the municipalities have seen the effect of wildfire on their watersheds firsthand.

But more and more areas that haven’t had to deal with wildfires are recognizing that with climate change, they will start to. “They’re very much understanding that this is something they’ll have to tackle if they aren’t already,” she said.

Prescribed burns and forest thinning are recognized as ways to control wildfires, said Butsic, but it’s something that’s easier said than done, particularly because of regulations that restrict forest management. While many of these rules have benefits – for example, preventing exposure to smoke inhalation and protecting endangered species – he maintains that they are still shortsighted. In a recent study, his team proposed some changes to help take these long-term costs into account.

“Forest management is really about trade-offs,” Butsic said. “You’re either going to do the work now and get the benefits later, or you’re going to put off doing the work now and then you’re going to get the pain later.”

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About the Author

Lindsay Abrams is News Deeply’s community editor for environment. She previously worked at Matter, a startup accelerator that uses design thinking practices to support media entrepreneurs. Her background is in health and science journalism, writing for publications including The Atlantic and Salon. She received her Master’s Degree in digital journalism from New York University.

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